To the top of Tokyo Tower and buying Tokyo Banana

Before I went to Japan, the only thing that I knew about Tokyo was the existence of Tokyo tower, which I did a brief research few days before my departure on Google photos just for few seconds, so I knew more o less how it looked like. It was already getting dark and me and Mari went from Akihabara to Kamiyacho Station and from there we walked for about 10 minutes to get to the most beautiful tower I have ever seen: Tokyo Tower!!! At first I thought that the tower was on a flat ground, instead was on a tiny hill that made the look of the tower even more impressing. It was so beautiful to see the illuminating red color of the tower in the evening, where everywhere was dark, the tower gave the area surrounding something special.

After finishing to admire the beauty of the tower, we decided to enter and inquire about the prices to get on top. They had two prices option, the first one was to pay to get to the white box half way of the tower, the other option was to pay to go to the top to the round part to have a better view and to do that we had to pay first to get to the middle part. We decided to do both!!! (I can’t remember how much we paid in total but was around 1,600-2000 Yen. Once we were in the middle part we could see that we had an amazing night view and started taking some photos. We could see the most part of Tokyo, Tokyo by night is just amazing with its tall building illuminated made the whole scenery even more amazing.

I have already been amazed by Tokyo during the day but during the night was also amazing if not better. Unfortunately, the battery of my phone went flat while we were in the middle part of the tower and I couldn’t take any more photos. ;(…… When we went to the top the view was even better because we could see more and also we could see better what the tall buildings were hiding behind. I realised recently that if we were going during day time on a nice day (as it has always been through my travelling experience before getting to Beppu) we could have seen mount Fuji. I reckon that going to Tokyo Tower during day time I could have seed a different aspect of Tokyo. I suggest everyone to try to go to Tokyo Tower both during the day and during the night.

While we were leaving, we saw a shop on the bottom of the tower that was selling souvenirs (omiyage – おみやげ in Japanese). We entered the shops and Mari asked me if I have ever eaten Tokyo Banana. – Tokyo Banana? What’s that? – I said and then she answered – Have you ever heard about Tokyo Banana? – No, as I told you I don’t know anything about Tokyo, because I want the whole experience to surprise me -. By the way, Tokyo Banana is a small sponge cake with the shape of a banana with inside a delicious banana flavoured cream. Mari then was surprised because they were selling the caramel version of Tokyo Banana, she didn’t know that was existing, she is from Tokyo but she was aware only about the banana version of the banana. Also the caramel version has the same shape. So we decided to buy both versions, each version for me and for herself. The photo below is the bag they gave us when we bought the Tokyo Bananas and the two different versions of the bananas (original on top and caramel below).

After leaving Tokyo Tower, we decided to go to a restaurant. I cannot remember which area did we go and what we ate, the only thing I can remember is that we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant, we spent around 3,000 Yen each and I drunk Sake or Shochu (traditional Japanese style drink that has around 20% alcohol). At the restaurant we sat on the floor, as this is custom in Japan. I always wanted to eat in the traditional Japanese style, I ate on the floor few times at a Korean restaurant back in London, but never in a Japanese restaurant. The food was great and the restaurant was amazing. It’s a pity that I couldn’t take any photos because of the phone’s battery, otherwise I would have done.

After leaving the restaurant Mari and I decided what to do the day after (Sunday, 9th September 2012) and she told me that she was going to take me to Tokyo fish market in the morning, but that comes to the next chapter of the blog. Then she went back home and I went back to the Ryokan and I arrived just before midnight. After having a quick shower I plugged my phone to charge and I layed on the futon mattress on the tatami floor, I turned on the TV to see what they were showing. At the ryokan they had just terrestrial TV and it wasn’t very clear. I started watching a channel where they were showing anime, even though I couldn’t see it properly due to the quality, and it wasn’t long until I fell asleep (of course after switching off the TV).